5 comments about Disney Presents a Family Christmas.

1. This was the music my kids listened to from a record recorded on a cassette. They loved all the fun songs from the Disney characters and the great voice of the male singer and chorus. They have great Christmas memories of this tape and so do I. We were so happy to find such a great CD with so many of the songs all in one. You won't be disappointed in this CD; it just plain makes you happy!!! Merry Christmas



2. This record definitely brings back moments of my childhood, when my family and I lived in Australia. I am 19 now and we live in Europe. I've still got the cassette, but its quality has obviously gone blunt. Since it is difficult to find a copy in the Netherlands, I can barely express how it felt when I did find one at Amazon.com. It was pure excitement! You should absolutely buy this record if you have kids. At any older age they will be thankful that you gave them this magical christmas experience.



3. i am 14 years old now but grew up every chrismas listening to this cd and its has become of of the main parts of my christmas! I love this music it brings back memories of great time. it has a great seection of sing-a-long songs that after just one christmas can become a part of every christmas for years to come!



4. I am so thrilled that I FINALLY found this cd. I have looked EVERYWHERE!! When I was a child we had this on a record LP and I remember my brother and cousins, along with myself, would sit around the house and listen to this and sing to the top of our lungs. LOL (Of course our parents would be like *calm it down just abit kids*) we'd laugh and keep right on singing. Talk about memories!! I am 27yrs old now and I feel like that little kid all over again. :) I suggest that anyone with children buy this. You'll never regret it! Thank you so much Amazon for carrying this. It's truly a real treasure.



5. I ordered this CD after reading the other reviews, hoping this CD would be identical to my Disney tape I listened to a decade ago as a child. While some songs are identical (such as 12 days of Christmas) with the Disney "crew" singing (Goofy, Donald, Mickey), some of the other songs are NOT the same as I remember. "Frosty the snowman" doesn't have Goofy singing, nor does "Jingle Bells". I wonder why some of the songs are as I remember them, whereas others are missing the Disney gang. I'm disappointed, as I was hoping for the CD version of my Disney tape. Not a bad CD altogether, but it really isn't the same without Goofy and Mickey singing on all of the tracks.

3 comments about Time-Life Music: A Peaceful Christmas.

1. We love to listen to Christmas music at our house. This is a wonderful mixture of instrumental music. We liked it much more than the Windham Hill Christmas collection, which I bought at the same time.



2. I WAS VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH THIS CD BECAUSE I THOUGHT I WAS GETTING A DIFFERENT TYPE MUSIC THAN I GOT. I DON'T CARE FOR PIANO AND GUITAR SOLOS VERY MUCH. BUT THOSE OF YOU WHO LIKE THIS FORM OF MUSIC WILL LIKE THIS CD.



3. THIS IS A GOOD CD, WITH GOOD MUSIC WELL DONE. I LIKE THIS TYPE OF CD AS A CHANGE FROM MY NEW AGE MUSIC. I COLLECT ALL TYPES OF CHRISTMAS MUSIC WITH ABOUT 75 CDS SO FAR. I AM ALWAYS LOOKING FOR NEW ARRANGEMENTS OF THE OLD TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS SONGS AND ESPECIALLY NEW MUSIC. DAVID ARKENSTONE AND CHIP DAVIS (MANNHEIM
   STEAMROLLER) ARE THE VERY BEST. THIS IS WORTH HAVING IN YOUR COLLECTION.

5 comments about Another Rosie Christmas.

1. I know for a fact that Rosie O'Donnell has admitted to the public that she cannot sing. Now if she can't sing then why has she released two Christmas albums with her annoying caterwauling? Oh my god is she awful. All the pro tools in the world can't make Rosie O'Donnell sound even mediocre on cd.



2. If you're tired of old, tired Christmas songs, & want something new & *fun!*... this is a wonderful CD. Every single song is a hit, & for those griping about Rosie... no she can't sing, doesn't claim she can... but she knows good music, & knows how to make a delightful CD that causes the listener to feel like they are at a party with old friends. I hope this dear lady continues her efforts both to give us music like this, & her work to raise the thousands of dollars for children's charity.

   You want to gripe about Rosie? Try listening to "Rosie Christmas" again, & maybe you'll get the real meaning behind the holiday!




3. I am not one to do this type of thing, however I just heard this over the weekend and it was [pretty bad]. Let me start by saying I never understood the Rosie thing. I can't fathom how she has legions of followers, but this is America and miracles happen every day. Tastes are subjective, but one thing not subjective is that Rosie can not sing. On a handful of these songs, she is heard moaning in the background like some kind of animal in heat. The end result is that otherwise fine performances end up sounding like high school garage band stuff. Imagine the ego of someone to expect that people would pay to hear this? Maybe she is smarter than I give her credit for and a disciple of PT Barnum...



4. This is a fun filled stellar collection of Christmas songs, old favourites, and new ones, recorded for a good cause.
   
   Song styles range from Urban: `Spread a little love on Christmas day' by Destiny's Child, Country: the sing-a-long `Merry Christmas from the family' by Dixie Chicks and Rosie, Latin: the bouncy `Ay ay ay it's Christmas' by Ricky Martin, Rock: `Nuttin' for Christmas' by Smashmouth & Rosie, to Disco: the trancey `Rosie Christmas' by Donna Summer. A little something for everyone.
   
   Other fantastic songs are the melancholic raspy `Winter wonderland' by Macy Gray, `Face of love' by Jewel and the touching, tender `Because it's Christmas (for all the children)' by Barry Manilow (yes) and Rosie.
   
   A great addition to your stocking this Christmas.



5. My kids know all the words and love to sing along! We've had the album for years but it was worn and this was a replacement.

5 comments about Silver & Gold.

1. One lonely night I sat watching TV and happened to see a beauty like none else on stage soulfully rendering the classic"The Drummer boy". I was entralled. Vanessa Williams performance on A&E live by request was simply fabulous. I immediately bought the album and Iwas not disappointed. Holly and the Ivy is a classic. Well done and special appreciation to the guy on the flute and guitar. My favorite track? "Rise up Shepard" this is gospel in the making! What's a better way to welcome the lord Jesus Christ into our hearts than to stand and sing our hearts out to him and follow when the time be. Vanessa thank you for recording such a beautiful album.



2. This Holiday album was a real treat. This album had such a relaxing jazzy feel to it throughout. "December Lullaby" is a spunky upbeat song featuring her four year old daughter Sasha.
   "Merry Christmas, Darling" a dedication to Rick Fox. This song, kind of gives you an insight of how Vanessa or anyone feel when they have that special someone missing for the Holidays.
   Ossie Davis is also featuring on this album in a reading of Langston Hughes "I Dream a World". This album is definitely a great Holiday album and the best Holiday Album I own.



3. Quite simply this is the best holiday CD ever made.
   Every song is a treasure. You can't help but feel the
   "Joy" of Christmas when you hear Vanessa and Brian sing
   "Joy to the World". "The Holly and the Ivy" will capture
   your Christmas spirit with its intriguing melodies. But
   the best track has to be "December Lullaby" which you will
   keep in your head for a long time. Vanessa Williams proves
   once and for all that she is one of the best artists we have
   today. Enjoy every track!!



4. I already have her previous Christmas album 'Star Bright', which I've enjoyed every year since it came out. I had not been paying attention and therefore missed out on this musical treat for the past two years, only finding it quite by accident in November 2006. Like some other reviewers, my favorite on the album is 'The Holly and the Ivy', with 'Silver and Gold' being the best rendition since the master, Burl Ives, made it a perennial Christmas tradition.
   
   Contrary to some other reviewers, I thought that 'Joy to the World' detracted from an otherwise fluid, relaxing experience. It's just a bit too frenetic for my taste.
   
   Still a 5-star album, by any measure. Heck, just the cover shot is worth the price. A very beautiful lady in every way.



5. I have to preface this by saying that I'm a huge Vanessa Williams' fan, as I think her voice is very clear and true. I own both this CD and her 1st Christmas CD, Star Bright, and really enjoy both of them. The one thing I like about this CD is that she doesn't just have the 'same old, same old' Christmas songs that you end up hearing over and over. The title track, Silver and Gold is really beautiful and different, and The Holly and the Ivy is a welcome addition and a song you just don't hear very often from other artists. Rise Up Shepherd is a terrific gospel-inspired song, and December Lullaby is wonderful, featuring her daughter. Vanessa still does include some of the traditional,(her Mary's Boy Child/O Holy Night brings tears to my eyes) and she does a very good rendition of the Carpenter favorite, Merry Christmas Darling. Amazon had this for $3.97 and I bought several as gifts this year and everyone that has listened to it has really loved it.
   
   If you're just looking for all the traditional songs, chances are you won't like this, but if you're looking for something a little new and different by a singer with an amazing voice, you won't be disappointed!!

5 comments about White Christmas.

1. Alright, so she doesn't sound like she did 45 years ago-what singer still performing today does?! I had the pleasure of seeing Rosemary Clooney perform Live at various times over the years and she always gives her all with each performance, even now. I purchased this album a few years back and can't understand why I am just now getting around to reviewing it. Anyway, if you are a major fan of Rosie, then you really should get this collection of Christmas classics. You can tell she had a blast recording it; the cuts that include her brother Nick and good friend Michael Feinstein are a joy to listen to. This makes a fine companion cd for Rosie's collection of tinsel tunes that she recorded in her prime, back in the 1950s. We should all be thankful that this woman gave us so many years of beautiful music and continues to do so. If you get a chance to see her perform then you are in for a treat, Rosie is not only a true legend but one of the most down to earth performers on the planet. Very highly recommended.



2. A music fan from Falls Church, VA USA HE CALLS HIMSELF????
   READ HIS STUFF ABOVE..

   Our darling Rosemary just aged beautifully on all her recordings..
   I really preferred the aging Rosemary to the younger one..
   I absolutely adore her and always will..

   Let's keep in touch "mr music fan"..
   maybe by then you will come up with someone better than our Rosemary??
   I won't hold my breath waiting for you.

   You irritate me by your obvious stupity in NOT REALIZING YOUR VOICE AGES ALSO ????????????

   Lots of singers couldn't hold a candle to her that are younger but aging..
   give it another listen..

   Hey,you might learn something..
   once a great girl band singer/performer/ =always and forever..




3. I love Rosemary Clooney. She was among the very best singers this country ever produced, and was "class" with a capital C. Rosemary had a special way with a song: perfect enunciation, an incredible sense of rhythm, and a style that showcased both simplicity and deep emotion--a rare combination. It was so sad in the last years of her life that her voice let her down. Rosemary's voice had been a little rough for years, but her sheer musicianship and emotional connection with lyrics enabled her to rise above this problem--especialy on up-tempo numbers--however "White Christmas" marked the beginning of her greatest decline.
   
   Over the years I have tried repeatedly to like this album, but I cannot. Poor Rosemary sounds so tired, maybe even sad. I own practically every album she made for Concord Jazz up to this point and enjoyed them all, but after this point her voice only got worse and worse. It was painful to listen to the decline of such a great singer, so I stopped buying her CDs. I would like to give this album a better rating because it contains two of my favorite things--Rosemary Clooney and Christmas songs--but I can't. If she had only recorded this album a few years earlier, we might have had a classic Christmas album for the ages.



4. This CD has become a family favorite. Rosemary's voice never sounded better. Brings back many fond memories of cherished family gatherings. A must have for any holiday collection. Rosemary lives on.



5. "Rosemary is truly one of the greatest interpreters of modern song. She has the ability to capture the spirit of a song and to communicate it like no other. With this record, she uses her ability to tell us, in her own way, about the spirit of Christmas. She will always be a part of the legendary film. But this record is all hers. This is Rosemary Clooney's "White Christmas." ~ Glen Barros, President - Concord Records, 1996 ~
   
   "Here's a multi-layered celebration of the holiday we can't get enough of from a singer who can transport us a few ever could - to a place where a newborn can help us believe again that all things are possible. Where hope is a renewable resource. Where " ... through the years we all can be together..." If that's not worth celebrating, what is?" ~ Nick Clooney ~
   
   I agree with Rosemary Clooney's brother, Nick Clooney, on what he said about hope, about believing and about its possibilities.
   
   This Christmas album was recorded in 1996 when Rosemary Clooney's vocal artistry was not at its prime, but she still renders these Christmas songs so beautifully with such affection and respect to the real essence of each and every song. The arrangements are beautifully and superbly done. There are twenty-one great performances from one of the greatest singers of all-time. She is backed by an orchestra conducted by Peter Matz, and some of the skilled musicians Gary Foster, Dan Higgins, Warren Luening, John Oddo and Chuck Berghofer, to mention a few. She starts off with a glowing rendition of "The Christmas Song," which features saxophonists Gary Foster (alto) and Dan Higgins (tenor).
   
   The Earl Brown Singers sung shortened versions of the best-loved traditional Christmas carols of all-time, "O Little Town of Bethlehem," "Joy To The World," "Silent Night" "The First Noel" and "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer."
   
   One of my highlights is a wonderful medley of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" and "Hey Kris Kringle." She is joined by another great singer, Michael Feinstein, who's a very close friend of Ms. Clooney. You'll hear that fascinating accordion from soloist Frank Morocco on the intro and all throughout this song, and George Robert's nice trombone playing as well.
   
   She sings with such grace in "Winter Wonderland" with soloists Gary Foster and Warren Luening on sax and trumpet, respectively. There's that special glow in her voice as she sings Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne's "The Christmas Waltz" and "Let It Snow" with that beautiful piano solo by John Oddo. "I'll Be Home For Christmas," "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" and "Christmas Memories," a composition by Don Costa and Alan & Marilyn Bergman are all elegantly performed.
   
   Two of the highlights are Irving Berlin's "Count Your Blessings" and "White Christmas" from the movie of the same title, which stars Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney, who sings this carol with warmth and love. And as "she dreams of a White Christmas, she wishes everyone's Christmas to be white."
   
   Christmas is truly the most wonderful time of the year and it really brings out the child in me. I simply love Christmas! And true to the lyrics of Alan & Marilyn Bergman, "Christmas memories are the sweetest ones I know." The songs in this CD will transport you back in time with your fondest memories of Christmas.
   
   "There'll be much mistletoeing
   And hearts will be glowing
   When loved ones are near
   It's the most wonderful time of the year."
   
   I merrily recommend this superb CD and as you listen to it during Christmas Holidays, may the true spirit of Christmas reign in your hearts.

5 comments about Christmas Album.

1. Each Christmas I hear the song "Eyes of a child" and can't quite see why it is a christmas song only and not played more on the lite rock radio stations. I am getting married this year and each of us is bringing one child into our new family. I found this song to be perfect for the ceremony as we give gifts to the girls and acknowledge all of us uniting in family. If you know of anyone doing something very special where children are involved, recommend this song.



2. I love Air Supply, I have their greatest Hits CD and I love it and think the songs on that CD are great so that is why I bought their Christmas CD and sorry but I have to agree with the reviewer from Canada that this CD is boring! I love Christmas music but this CD just dosen't appeal to me at all and I find it to be a major snorefest!



3. Air Supply was destined to release a Christmas album as they are suited for it. The duo did a wonderful job performing 8 very classic and beloved Christmas classics. Graham Russell wrote two original tracks for the record "The Eye's Of A Child" & "Love Is All". But wait a minute...what in the world makes these two songs Christmas songs? The fact they are on a Christmas album? Perhaps, but they sound like traditional Air Supply songs. As it may be "Love Is All" is the best track off of the album. This one will definatley stand the test of time as I listen to it every holiday season and never really get tired of it. Well done and enjoyable especially for the holidays!



4. I have always found Air Supply to be a strangely appealing group. Whenever I hear one of their songs, I am somehow able to sing all of the lyrics, even though I've never owned any of their albums or known anyone who did. So, I enjoy using Air Supply as a punchline for the epitome of cheesy 70's and early 80's music, even though I think I actually like their music!!
   
   Having admitted all of this, my wife bought me their Christmas album as part joke, part fulfillment of a lifelong dream of actually owning some of their music. And to be honest, this particular album is relatively nondescript. As some other reviewers have assessed, much of it is ultimately very boring. That's as much a testament to the mediocre arrangements of these classic Christmas tunes, but there just didn't seem to be much punch in these songs. Even the two original compositions, though very Air Supplyish, were rather nondescript.
   
   Ultimately, this album isn't terrible. They sing some great Christmas songs, and they sound like Air Supply. It just doesn't have much character to it. I think I'll try Air Supply's greatest hits album, as they seem to be best with songs written specifically for them. If you like everything that comes out of the mouths of these two guys, then you'll like this. But if you want some stellar Christmas music, you'll have to look elsewhere. (Try James Taylor's Christmas album. It's fantastic!!)



5. Here's Air Supply's one and only christmas cd this is a must for all great air supply fans.If you want to heaar some great christmas music done the way that only Air Supply can then is cd is just for you.
   
   Rondall

5 comments about The Christmas Revels: In Celebration of the Winter Solstice.

1. This Project typifies marvellous Revels Winter Celebration/Christmas music...there is simply nothing like it out there. In my opinion this is their 2nd best collection, 'Sing We Now of Christmas' being the best. The brass ensemble and Revels Chorus display wonderful musicianship, and the historical instruments and languages add a great dimension. The songs are a work in history: you can feel it. What a great collection of songs! The only negative point I can come up with (no doubt Revels fanatics will disagree) is that this album is too short on music at 45 minutes, containing quite a few tracks of poetry/playlines that I really can't work up the energy to care about. I would have prefered more songs in their place. I buy CDs for music personally, so -for me at least- those poetry tracks constitute wasted space.



2. This is a recording of a stage production with a cast of a hundred or so. It is celebrating Christmas, and the Winter Solstice, in the Victorian Age. If you find most Christmas Carols boring after a while, this music is for you. The Lord of the Dance is particularly stirring as the cast brings the audience into the music. It's wonderful!



3. If you've seen any of the Christmas Revels live performances, which appear in a number of cities during the holiday season, you'll see an intimate performance of singers, choruses (including children's), dancers and instrumental ensembles, all of it first rate. The Revels are meant to evoke an earlier Christmas, the solstice celebration of the end of the year, of death and rebirth, as celebrated in feasting and cameraderie of a small village.
   
   This album is the stereotypical Revels, and begins with the haunting Abbot's Bromley Horn Dance for the Morris dancers (typically in the show), and the spoken introductions that would open and carry the show throughout. The sword dance is there, as is the Lord of the Dance (to the tune of Simple Gifts) that marks the end of the first act -- and in which the entire audience dances out through the theater to the lobby, led by the cast.
   
   There's also the majestic Sussex Mummer's Carol ("God bless the master of this house ...") at the end, in which the audience joins, and here it is sung in its typical arrangement. This carol ends all Revels Christmas shows, whatever the show's theme, and it is as moving a carol as you'll ever hear.
   
   I have this album in CD -- same material -- and I recommend you buy it in full if you're downloading it, since it is the full show and worth the experience.



4. I was so pleased to find this on CD. My family has listened to this on LP every Christmas morning for as long as I can remember. The music is fun and upbeat and really sets the festive mood.



5. The main reason to buy this cd is for "Lord of the Dance" (which technically isn't a Christmas but rather an Easter song). This is still the best version of the song out there.

5 comments about A Very Special Christmas.

1. While some of these videos are great (and some decidedly mediocre), it is notable that the audio is in mono. The special olympics website about the DVD has artists' names spelled incorrectly.
   
   While it is a worthy cause, this is NOT a great product and my suggestion is to avoid it until something better is available. Stereo tracks for all the audio is clearly available, so to release this collection in mono is baffling.
   
   I plan to try to return my copy to Amazon, as this is clearly subpar.



2. I know this was a compilation for a charity, but it was too varied for me. My suggestion would be to do one in a mild version and one in the hip-hop, wilder version. I could not show this at my Christmas party because of the wilder nature of some of the video!! After all, it is Christmas, not Spring Break!!



3. hey guys,
   I love it.For any Jon fan it's a must have.I really enjoyed the U2 video too.GO OUT AND,GET THIS FOR NEXT CHRISTMAS!!
   Thank you,
   Sheila Lance



4. a very interesting dvd - but i think there a too less songs. there are so much more xmas songs and a dvd would offer more place.



5. I bought this DVD because one of my all time favorite Christmas carols is Eric Clapton's version of "Christmas Tears." Since this performance exists only on this DVD (and the CD, of course) I ordered this disc the moment I knew it was available. Watching his performance still leaves me in awe. I can't argue with the other reviewers critiques of this disc -- the sound could have and should have been better. Further, I own all of the Very Special Christmas CDs and my choice of performances would have vastly differed from those compiled on this disc, but, again, the Clapton song makes this disc worth the price. If you are a Clapton fan, buy it.

5 comments about Mendelssohn: Songs Without Words.

1. In contrast to many other musicians, Mendelssohn had an evident, fruitful and fortunate association with the visual arts. Keeping in mind his education was conceived as part of the Renascence man, so we should not ignore his classical-humanistic education, so that explains why his Symphonies maybe basically, considered such arresting visual landscapes: the Scottish, Italian and Reform would seem confirm it.
   
   The Songs without words conform ostensibly, a great stylistic and conceptual unity. It could not be other way, noticing the fact John Field was essentially the grandfather of the nocturnes for piano and Chopin the most expressive and intimate explorer of the human soul, Mendelssohn had all those variables in mind and decided to create a portrait album. As other artists as Liszt and Goethe the exerted fascination after being in Venice would work out as febrile inspiration. Every little page of this kaleidoscopic reflects different state anima; they are structured and interweaved similarly respect Robert Schumann with his Carnival or Childhood scenes; with profound lyric and evocative accent, destined to recreate the tourist memory. He achieved then to make a voluminous album of feelings but without that marked introspective mood of Frederic Chopin, for instance.
   
   Daniel Barenboim decided to record these ebb tide piano pieces with personal conviction and lyric imagination. The result was simply refulgent and deeply inspiring.



2. Bach's 48 preludes and fugues seem to me to be to some extent a diary of the composer's feelings, and I get much the same impression from Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, which are also 48 in number. To me, they are beautiful and touching minor masterpieces and when I hear them I am not disturbed, or even visited, by the thought that they are not masterpieces to rank with Bach's. However I am not as exacting in evaluating a performance of them as I would be with Bach either, and when I willingly award this set 5 stars I know that I'm setting the bar lower. There are limits to what any interpreter, even the greatest, of the Songs Without Words can find in them, but for all that some interpreters are greater than others, and I happen to know even better accounts of some of these pieces than you will find on these two discs from Barenboim.
   
   It was high time in any case that I had a complete set of these lovely works. My collection up to now had only stretched to 14 of them, but - I have to say it again - those 14 are enough to teach me the difference between fine performances and great ones. Barenboim's accounts should be easily good enough for most of us most of the time, and in addition to the Songs he throws in the Children's Pieces plus a few other short numbers that Mendelssohn, for reasons known principally to himself, chose not to publish. With one solitary exception, Barenboim's touch is affectionate, warm and beautiful, and is well served by the 1974 recording. Speeds adopted sound about right to me in general, and the interpretations offered are full of insight and loving care, and free from eccentricity or egotism. Barenboim can be powerful when he needs to be, but the requirement for power is very limited in what we have here, and the overall impression that the set leaves is rightly one of tact, sympathy and enthusiasm. My single regret concerns my own favourite of all the Songs - the Duetto op 38/6. Something goes quite unaccountably wrong here. I'd call the speed too fast in the first place, and I would have liked the pseudo-voices brought out more strongly against the arpeggio accompaniment, but the real affront to my sensibilities comes when the two voices sing forte in octaves, and Barenboim bangs out the melody in a bad-tempered and cacophonous way that reminds me of one of Kissin's off-days.
   
   One botched effort out of 58 is not a bad ratio nevertheless. I can play the Duetto to my own satisfaction anyway, or I can listen to it on my old Turnabout LP played by Guiomar Novaes. Novaes seems to be all but forgotten these days, but she was a great player, recognised as such by no less than Debussy when she was a teenager. Her idea of the Duetto is slower than mine, indeed for an amateur like me the piece, which lies beautifully and naturally under the hands, seems practically to dictate its own speed. However it's not the tempo that makes the impression. In this piece as in many others starting with the very first of all the Songs, what transfixes me is the haughty and highlighted clarity of Novaes's melodic line and the magnificence of her left-hand tone. It also happens that in the disc that accompanies the biography of Serkin by Stephen Lehmann and Marion Faber there are two of the Songs in Novaes's selection - a solemn and gripping op 62/1 and a coruscating Spinning Song worthy of Horowitz or Cziffra for virtuosity. The point is simply this - there is an aura of greatness that surrounds the playing of Serkin and Novaes in practically anything they do. Admirable as he is, Barenboim is not quite in that league, although I don't consider the balance of advantage to be totally one-sided, and it may be that Barenboim actually makes a more appealing job of the Spring Song.
   
   Nevertheless I have only 14 of the Songs from Novaes, and all of two from Serkin, in somewhat antiquated sound at that. Barenboim gives me all 48 plus some bonus extras, played with love and appreciation of the soul of this beautiful and affecting music. This is a set I am going to be returning to for solace and balm to the spirit, I can tell already. The recorded sound is not wondrous, but it's good 1974 quality. The liner note is from the distinguished pen of Joan Chissell, but I can't say it seems to me to amount to much. Moreover she nails her colours to the mast with the ringing challenge `No 19th-century composer exceeded Mendelssohn in respect for Classical tradition, and such ordered modes of expression as fugue...' I dispute this strenuously. Not only are Mendelssohn's fugues not his best or most professional work, as Tovey makes very clear, they are inferior in respect for classical precedent and thoroughness of workmanship to Schumann's, as the same sage also points out. Besides which Brahms was a musical scholar of minute and profound learning, particularly steeped in the great German musical tradition, to an extent that Mendelssohn never rivalled. What Mendelssohn can claim is to be sui generis, what he does best he does better than anyone, and some of his most intimate musical thoughts are to be found in the Songs Without Words. For the pleasure and comfort they bring me I thank Mendelssohn's shade and the loving and expert guidance of Barenboim.



3. Until I purchased this bargain (two discs for the price of one), recording of Mendelssohn's "Songs without Words" that are played exquisitely by Daniel Barenboim, I, in the past, have listened mainly to Mendelssohn's chamber music, Concertos and/or Symphonies kind of forgetting about these most beautiful compositions, What a real pleasure this recording has been for me. I believe that Mendelssohn composed these" Songs without Words" (also included are Mendelssohn's "Kinderstucke", op 72, "Albumblatt", op. 117 and 2 short pieces) through out his short life. Daniel indeed plays all of the works including the "demanding" ones (there are surprisingly for me some very demanding ones) most beautifully never forgetting that the compositions are above all else "Songs". Daniel Barenboim always lets the melodies be heard above all else and there are some very beautiful melodies to hear.
   
   This recording was made in the early 1970s; however, DGG has done a wonderful job of transferring them to the CD format--the sound is rich, lush and clear.
   
   If you want to hear some beautiful compositions that are played most beautifully, buy this recording.



4. One of the most and romantic compositions ever written, "Songs without Words", interpreted by an excelent pianist. Enjoy it.



5. Beautifully interpreted, Barenbolm plays delicately and skillfully. This music is perhaps the epitome of the romantic classical era of piano music. Mendelssohn composed piece after piece of melodic and engaging piano music that eventually became this complete cycle. Some pieces may grab you more than others but overall, everyone of them expresses emotion. It surprises me that these pieces are not better known to anyone who loves classical piano music.

5 comments about Home for Christmas.

1. I have about 20 Christmas albums in my CD collection and none comes close to this one by Amy Grant. The ONE holiday album that my family requests each and every holiday season.



2. This collection is a rare gift to listeners..when this album first came out, on a tape, I played it Christmas morning as my son came down to open his presents. That was many years ago. Now,as a teenager, he asks us to put on this cd, before he comes into the living room. This from a guy who is definitely not a country fan. In our home, it is simply not Christmas without this cd. It is a gentle, beautiful Christmas collection every family will treasure because Amy Grant shines and makes every song her own. Our family has gone through two tape version and about two CD copies..I am now ordering another one!!



3. I love this CD!! I have to listen to it every Christmas. Amy Grant puts a new spin on some old favorites and brought to life some new songs that I love. "Mary's Song" is probably my most favorite song on the whole disk, but I just love it and would recommend it to anyone and everyone!!



4. I own all of Amy Grant's Christmas albums, but I think this one is my favorite. My favorite song is "Emmanuel (God With Us)" and then "Breath of Heaven." Wonderful lyrics, beautiful arrangements of the songs... an all-around FANTASTIC album. I highly recommend it! :-)



5. This CD is worth it just for "Breathe of Heaven" alone (a truly remarkable song!).